Scotty Arnold: Three Tricks for y’all

Certain people are just good at stuff, and they’re the ones you want to learn from. When that stuff is snowboarding, Scotty Arnold is one of the best. From his lethal precision on metal and cement to his sweet surefootedness in the air, this East Coaster knows what he’s doing. So get out your mechanical pencils and a clean sheet of graph paper, ’cause Scotty’s about to get mathematical on your ass.—J.S.

Frontside 540 Indy

Spinning frontside:

“This trick is one of the funnest there is. Since you’re taking off regular, you can pop hard off your tail—and either go off your flat base or heels. I worked my way up on small jumps in the park to get the frontside five Indy down. First I did 180s, then 360s, and when I felt comfortable, I started trying 540s.”

Landing in the pow: “This sequence is the first time I landed this trick into powder—and my first time ever landing switch into pow. To land in deep snow, just keep your weight in the back. Once you land, hold on and ride it out or you’ll rag-doll and get whipneck. A frontside five is a great trick to try in powder, because you’re usually already a little in the backseat when you come around.”

Frontside versus backside: “Frontside fives are usually easier than backside fives because you can spot your landing after you’ve spun 360. The key to getting 540 is to keep looking over your front shoulder until you reach about 400 degrees, and then spot your landing.”

Switch Backside 720

Spinning switch: “A regular backside seven is pretty easy, but for some reason when people start spinning them switch, they always cork too much and land on their heads. I first learned them on park jumps after I had switch backside fives dialed. I landed in the backseat the first time, the second time I focused on keeping my spin flat and landed it. Learning switch backside threes helps a lot for landing fakie.”

Grabs: “A good grab for this trick is switch mute, so you can swing your back hand behind you to help keep you spinning. Some people grab switch stalefish, but I think that looks kinda wack.”

Boardslide To Switch Frontside Boardslide

Dominating the kink: “When you do this trick, you have to boardslide through the kink. This is the sketchy part—if your toe edge catches, you can face-dive into the stairs, and if you lean back too much, you can slip out and hit your head on the stairs. So as you go through the kink, keep your weight forward, but lift up your toes so they don’t catch on the kink.”

From boardslide to switch front board: “I first did this on a flat-down box in the park. You should learn Cab boardslide to frontside first—it’s way easier. As you go through the kink, rotate your upper body, but not your board. When you get to the end of the flat, let your board rotate to catch up with your body, then jump a little and try to land in switch frontside. Keep your weight leaning down the rail, slide, and come back to switch.”